Supply teacher recruitment: The Supply Register in the media

We’re passionate about supply teacher recruitment and improving outcomes for everyone involved in UK education. That’s why we’ve spoken extensively about some of the challenges facing the market in which we operate.

Indeed, any followers of the sector media may have seen some of our articles in recent months looking at the issues that educational establishments and institutions have been tackling. Here’s a look at some of the topics that our Founder and Managing Director, Baljinder Kuller, has been speaking to the media about.

Schools Week

Badj’s editorial feature in Schools Week, one of the UK’s leading education publications, looked at some of the more challenging practices in the industry – namely the activities of several unscrupulous resourcing agencies, and how they’re contributing to ongoing recruitment and retention issues. Some organisations are using the challenging macroeconomic climate and skills-short market to charge unnecessarily high fees and have used this environment to line their pockets. This is at the expense of establishments that are already facing significant challenges, and we used our platform to encourage the new Government to step in.

Of course, these unethical agencies aren’t causing all of the talent-related issues in the sector, and Badj’s piece also looked at some of the reasons why people are leaving the market, and how institutions of all types can source the skills they need.

You can read his views in full online here, or in the October print edition of Schools Week

Education Today

Another driving factor behind the skills crisis in education is related to retention, which formed the core focus of our article for Education Today. We looked at how the new Government’s plans to recruit 6,500 new teachers only scratch the surface of the talent problems facing the market. Even if targets are met, only one in every five of the 32,163 schools in the UK will benefit from a new teacher, and that’s before we account for the high number of people leaving the industry entirely. According to recent data, stress is a key factor; with 52% of teachers reporting that their workload increased significantly over the past year, and with a large proportion working over 50 hours per week, way above levels in other industries. This is leading to critical work-life imbalances. Tied to this is the growing mental health crisis in education. A 2023 study by the Teacher Wellbeing Index found that 81% of teachers said their job had negatively impacted their mental health. We identified methods that education employers and bodies can help more effectively support the professionals under their care, and encourage more to stay in the industry in the long-term.

Read the piece in full here.

Independent Schools Magazine

But that’s not all. You can expect more from Badj in the media, and in his latest piece he took a more holistic approach to identifying solutions for education establishments, and how the entire industry can work together to solve its long-term talent problems. In an article for Independent Schools Magazine, he focused on how the private-market, and the sector as a whole, can encourage greater numbers of young people to consider teaching as a viable career choice, and additional methods to aid retention. In this piece, Badj honed in on how larger class sizes are not only impacting pupils, but teachers too. According to a study, just 18% of independent school teachers felt that their workload is manageable. In his feature, Badj highlighted how many are clearly being pushed to their limits, and with more specialists looking to leave, the strain is only likely to increase.

While some rather unusual solutions have been mooted, like offering longer lie-ins, or a nine-day fortnight – Badj reviewed an array of the more realistic measures that could be taken. These included a focus on training, and how development opportunities for education professionals need a wholesale rethink whilst also providing better access to supply teachers. Particularly when new DfE figures show that use of these specialists has increased by 58 per cent since the pandemic.

Another elephant in the room is the issue of early-careers teacher retention. The proportion of new starters leaving education has significantly increased in recent years, with 30% leaving within the first five years of qualifying. The article outlined the efficacy of measures like pairing new teachers with experienced mentors and building more effective support networks and how they would work in practice. It also identified some of the ways that education as a whole can put a stop to the skills crisis, and get more people to consider teaching as a career option.

To read the piece in full keep an eye out for the next edition of Independent Schools Magazine.